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The case discusses the rapid success and competitive challenges of Guangzhou Chimelong Group Co. Ltd.’s (Chimelong's) marine-based recreational theme park, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. The theme park was one of the biggest in China and had won several awards for its size and programs, but Western players such as the Walt Disney Company were expanding into China, and several smaller marine-based theme park players were entering the market, posing the threat of imitation to Ocean Kingdom. How should the theme park compete against leading multinationals and burgeoning Chinese domestic players? Could Ocean Kingdom sustain its competitive advantage against these players?

Two recent university graduates were completing a business plan in hopes of securing a government grant to assist them in coming up with the necessary funding to launch a new venture. The pair had developed an idea to launch a new food delivery mobile application. In order to complete the grant application, three years of projected cash budgets, statements of earnings, and statements of financial position would be required. It was spring, and the pair hoped to have the mobile application ready for launch in early autumn.

In 2012, JD.com had emerged as the biggest business-to-consumer e-commerce retailer in China. The company’s founder and chief executive officer, Qiangdong Liu, realized that he had to strengthen the company’s internal management in order to sustain rapid growth. In 2011 and 2012, he recruited several chief officers, including Yu Long, who became JD.com’s chief human resources officer and general counsel. Case A describes the challenges Long faced when joining the company in August 2012 and invites students to think about what her priorities should be when tackling these challenges.

Case B describes what Long decided to do and how, in the first year, she executed her priorities, which primarily consisted of two improvement projects: culture consolidation and talent review. Case B asks students to set priorities on tackling the remaining HR problems in the coming few years.

Between 1998 and 2018, JD.com Inc. (JD.com) transformed from a compact disc (CD)-burner shop into a technology-driven group of service companies (JD Group) and China’s largest retailer by revenue. Yu Long joined the Group in August 2012 as chief human resources (HR) officer and general counsel. Over the years, Long launched various initiatives to strengthen the HR team and improve its practices to support the Group’s rapid growth and transformation. This case describes the new challenges that faced the Group’s HR management committee headed by Long.

In 2018, the leaders of Cisca Engineering Ltd. (CEL), a small engineering firm in Waterloo, Ontario, faced a decision about whether to go beyond their normal pay scale in order to hire a mechanical engineering candidate they desperately wanted. The company was struggling to attract top talent since its normal base salary capabilities were thought to be lower than those of larger firms. Considering the trade-offs, the company president weighed the potentially negative effect on overall employee morale with the advantages of having a needed new employee. Should he offer the candidate the pipe stress analyst position at a lower salary and risk being turned down? Should he offer the salary the candidate wanted and risk upsetting his other employees if they found out? Should he revamp his compensation system and increase salary levels for all of the company’s engineers?

In late 2016, the marketing head at Air France India needed a strategy to acquire additional business-class customers. Although Air France India had been performing well in the economy-class segment, revenues in the business-class segment remained a challenge. Which customer group should the airline target to acquire more business-class travellers? How should the company increase its brand image for this target customer group? And how should the company reach out to these new customers? The marketing head also needed to decide whether the company should act alone and implement a strategy of direct marketing, pursue a partnership using a co-branding strategy, or utilize a combination of those options.

As Shanghai MarcPoint Information Technology Co. Ltd. (MarcPoint) celebrated its fifth anniversary, its founder was quite pleased by what the company had achieved. MarcPoint was a start-up that offered marketing research services by analyzing user-generated content (UGC) with big-data technologies. The company had been successful and grown steadily since its inception in 2013. It was founded upon the realization that UGC was disrupting traditional marketing research and that big-data analytics provided the technological means to analyze the UGC efficiently and effectively. In 2018, the founder reflected on what MarcPoint’s next steps should be: What technologies should they pursue? Which markets could they target for growth in the next five years? Should they try to transport MarcPoint’s success to overseas markets? All in all, what needed to be done to sustain MarcPoint’s growth and maintain its leading position in the turbulent technical and business environment?

In the summer and fall of 2013, Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable television company by market share, made multiple bids to acquire Time Warner Cable, the second-largest company, only to be rejected. Then, in late 2013, Time Warner Cable invited Comcast Corporation, the largest cable television company, to make a friendly bid. In February 2014, Time Warner Cable accepted Comcast Corporation’s bid. However, a year later, in April 2015, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission recommended hearings on the merger case, signalling that the agency was unlikely to approve the merger. Following that announcement, Comcast Corporation terminated its proposed merger agreement with Time Warner Cable on April 24, 2015, which meant that Time Warner Cable was again available for a merger. At that point, Charter Communications had to decide whether to launch a new bid for Time Warner Cable. If so, what should Charter Communications do differently in this new bid attempt?

In January 2017, the Midea Group Co. Ltd. (Midea), a China-based large manufacturer of electrical appliances, completed its acquisition of German-based KUKA AG (KUKA), a large manufacturer of industrial robots. To ease concerns about technologies falling into foreign hands, Midea entered into an alliance with KUKA that ensured KUKA’s independence until 2023. However, within less than a year, KUKA experienced problems in its European and Asian markets. In China, it needed to lower costs. In Europe, a price war slowed down the orders, and the company had insufficient workers to meet demand in the United States and Asia. Some German automotive clients were losing trust in KUKA, and German employees worried about their job security. How could the two companies operate sufficiently independently to maintain their clients' trust, while being integrated enough to improve their efficiencies? How should they be prepared for the expiration of the alliance in 2023?

In November 2017, Jerry Xie, executive vice-president and corporate secretary of China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. (CGI), the only overseas-listed subsidiary of China National Gold Group (CNG), a Chinese state-owned gold company, was expected to report his plan for the future development of CGI to the chairman of the board of both CNG and CGI in a week’s time. CGI was perceived as the international flagship company of CNG and was listed in both Canada and Hong Kong, yet it had two mines in China and none in Canada. The parent firm needed Xie’s help to answer a question from the global capital market: should CGI be kept in operation in Canada?

In 2015, the director of the Lebanese non-governmental organization Arcenciel felt a surge of pride knowing that his organization's bottle caps project had created grassroots awareness of the importance of recycling. In recent years, Arcenciel had grown from an organization that supported people who were disabled and disenfranchised to become the largest recycler in the region. The organization had managed to create a synergy between its engagement on behalf of people who were marginalized and its activities to dispose of garbage in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. The Lebanese public was encouraged to collect plastic waste; and in exchange for each tonne of collected bottle caps, Arcenciel would donate a wheelchair to a person with a disability who was in need. This initiative engaged thousands of people in joint collection efforts. The director wondered how the trust that Arcenciel had gained through the bottle caps project could be harnessed to bring about political change, and to place environmental and social issues in Lebanon on the national agenda.

Vazirani Automotive Pvt. Ltd. debuted its first electric hypercar, the Vazirani Shul, in July 2018 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England. The Shul was promoted as the first electric hypercar from India; however, although the company was headquartered in Mumbai, India, its manufacturing and design hubs were in California, United States. The Shul was considered unique because the car offered a blend of art and science, in contrast to other hypercars that were designed to appear aggressive and driven completely by science.<br>If successful, the Shul has the opportunity to become the world’s first electric car with a jet turbine-electric powertrain, expected to hit Indian roads by 2021. Could the Shul be successful in India and in the global markets? With design and manufacturing centres in the United States, should the Shul be positioned as an Indian car? Was the strategy of blending art and science in a car unique, and was it a recipe for success?

In November 2018, a co-owner of House of Lasagna, a chain of casual dining restaurants in the Philippines, was considering different marketing strategies to increase customer awareness of the chain’s brand and unique menu. The company had seven restaurants in November 2018 and a target of 25 restaurants by 2020. She was concerned about the customer satisfaction survey that the company conducted every year. The survey reported high customer satisfaction but comparatively low brand awareness. The co-owner knew that high brand awareness was critical for growth. What marketing strategies could House of Lasagna use to increase its brand awareness? Future growth and expansion strategies were most important. Would a loyalty program help increase customer retention?

In 2018, a dealership facilitator needed to decide whether to continue implementing the Thumbs Up application (app) at Lakeside Automotive Ltd., a family-owned car dealership in the Greater Toronto Area. The Thumbs Up app was a digital tool that enabled employees to recognize each other's good work by sending digitalized badges. The dealership facilitator had introduced this app in an effort to future-proof the organization by leveraging information technology such as digital communications. The move toward more digital communication was also a strategic activity in light of the company’s upcoming relocation and expansion. While some employees acknowledged the value and convenience of this digital tool, others believed it was “a waste of time. How should the dealership facilitator decide on the future of the Thumbs Up app? If she decided to retain the app, how could she improve its effectiveness?

On March 29, 2012, the chief executive officer of London Mining, an iron ore mining firm based in the United Kingdom, was considering an innovative financing offer from BlackRock World Mining Trust, an investment firm owned by asset manager BlackRock. The offer was a royalty agreement that would see BlackRock pay US$110 million to London Mining in exchange for 2 per cent of iron ore revenues from the Marampa mine in Sierra Leone. The company was looking at raising $250 million in debt and funding the remainder through a combination of free cash flow, convertible debt, or an equity issue. The opportunity to sell a portion of the revenues as part of a royalty agreement seemed appealing. The chief executive officer’s challenge was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of agreeing to the royalty arrangement.

Teach For Lebanon (TFL) was a non-profit organization (NFP) founded in response to the national problem of low quality public education. The case examines the sustainability challenges that TFL faced in a developing country, covering the financial, legal, and social dilemmas that NFPs struggled with. The case tracks TFL’s innovative solutions to enhance the organization’s financial sustainability and considers scaling-up and initiating a new business to generate additional income. Using benchmarking, students can invent and list their own suggestions for enhancing NFPs’ financial sustainability.

In 2012, the founders of food wholesale company FoodXervices Inc. Pte. Ltd. identified a gap between food wastage and food insecurity in Singapore. To reduce this gap, they established a charity arm, The Food Bank Singapore Ltd., which operated as a liaison, collecting near-to-expiry, excess, and unwanted food products from food suppliers, retailers, and restaurants for distribution to beneficiary organizations. When the charity was founded, it was set up to be legally independent to ensure clearer accounts and audits and to prevent false allegations of misuse of food donations. In April 2018, the founders were considering integrating these two now-mature entities to take advantage of potential internal and external synergies. They needed to determine the optimal way to integrate the two entities, while considering the needs of all stakeholders.

In January 2018, the second-generation scion and director of Natural, an Indian ice cream family business, was preparing for a meeting with the general manager of the company’s retail operations. The company was founded by the director’s father in 1984 under the name Kamath Ourtimes Ice Cream Private Ltd. and was known for its handmade artisanal ice cream brand—Natural Ice Cream. Several years after his entry into the family business in 2009, the son insisted on professionalizing the company as a means of achieving a vision of growth, despite an increasingly competitive market. In 2014, almost 30 years after the company was established, the general manager was the first professional to be hired by the company. Although professionalization brought about an increase in sales of two and a half times during 2012–2018, the director was sensing a change in the culture of the company, which he found troubling. He wondered if he had grown the company too big, too fast in his haste to transform it into a high-growth enterprise.

In early 2018, Modena, Italy’s Pagani Automobili S.p.A (Pagani Automobili), a boutique designer and manufacturer of high-performance internal combustion engine powered supercars, was struggling to develop a response to the emergence of electric vehicle technology. This technology appeared to be interesting and potentially useful. It outperformed internal combustion technology in terms of speed and power. In 2018, relatively inexpensive electric cars could already accelerate faster than most supercars over a quarter-mile distance. However, the electric car driving experience seemed very different from the experience of driving a supercar powered by an internal combustion engine, due largely to fundamental differences between the technologies. Could Pagani Automobili build an electric vehicle that its customers would perceive as a true Pagani Automobili creation?